Fool's Paradise

By Silpi Sikha Das

And one fine day, amidst nothingness,

I found myself in a fool's paradise.

With people who have the exact same smiles.

They extended their blood stained hands,

I shook to indulge for all I only knew,

There was validation in indulgence;

I quenched solitaire through involvement.

The deeper I navigated, darker it got.

They even direct, stage revolution!

To fetch some wicked ambitions.

They call it culture and kill in its name...

Furnished monsters,civilised goons.

Democratic dictators, peaceful violence.

In a hypnotic bandwagon of vanity,

I began a quest of finding myself...

Rummaged through people, person after person;

To only mirror my meagreness,

Unifying with the world's futile darkness.

By the time I reached, I was engulfed whole,

By placidness I erstwhile not know of.

I discovered the me within myself.

The me hunting for acceptance,

Deranged by objectifying judgements,

Weary of fighting to "fit in"

Stripped of teenage fairy tale fallacies;

That atleast kept my dreams afloat.

I have lost my sky and in it my sanity,

Combusted my innocence, deliberately...

I have discovered the me dangling in adulthood;

I walked in here in pursuit of purpose,

But now I reside in this fool's paradise

And I am very much one of them.

By Silpi Sikha Das